Jon Richards
Press Release

Rep. Richards Urges Gov. Walker to Sign ShotSpotter Expansion

A bill to partially restore a $445,000 cut to the Milwaukee Police Department’s gunshot sensor program is headed to Gov. Scott Walker’s desk.

By - Apr 2nd, 2014 01:51 pm

Madison— A bill to partially restore a $445,000 cut to the Milwaukee Police Department’s gunshot sensor program is headed to Gov. Scott Walker’s desk after passing the Senate last night on a unanimous vote. Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee), a member of the legislature’s budget committee, released the following statement encouraging Walker to quickly sign the measure to return $175,000 in state funds to the ShotSpotter program.

“ShotSpotter is a powerful crime fighting tool that should never have been cut in the first place. Now that the Senate has joined in supporting this common-sense community policing initiative, I call on Governor Walker to quickly sign it into law. ShotSpotter works and should be expanded to other neighborhoods in Milwaukee.”

The ShotSpotter audio sensor system pinpoints the location of gunfire in high crime areas and sends that information to officers on the street in a matter of seconds. Restoring $175,000 in state funding to the program, in combination with matching county and city funds, will allow the Milwaukee Police Department to expand ShotSpotter from 3 square miles to 10 square miles. The Assembly approved the measure in February on a vote of 95-1.

As a member of the Joint Finance Committee, Richards moved to fully restore the $445,400 cut to ShotSpotter that Walker originally proposed in his 2013-2015 state budget. Richards’ motion failed on a party-line vote.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

Recent Press Releases by Jon Richards

Campaign Launched to Retain Jon Richards as Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge

Richards was appointed to Branch 30 by Governor Evers last month

Leave a Reply

You must be an Urban Milwaukee member to leave a comment. Membership, which includes a host of perks, including an ad-free website, tickets to marquee events like Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Florentine Opera, a better photo browser and access to members-only, behind-the-scenes tours, starts at $9/month. Learn more.

Join now and cancel anytime.

If you are an existing member, sign-in to leave a comment.

Have questions? Need to report an error? Contact Us